EU should press Uzbekistan on news media crisis

We're
writing in advance of your January 24 meeting in Brussels with Uzbek President Islam
Karimov to urge you to raise Uzbekistan's grave press freedom conditions and to
make clear to Karimov that any improvement of the country's relationship with
Europe is dependent on him taking steps to fix the press freedom crisis. The
European Union made clear it is committed to human rights in Central Asia in
its 2009 plan, "The European Union and Central Asia: The New Partnership in Action."

In
response to the 2005 Andijan massacre, the Council of
Europe imposed economic and political sanctions against Karimov's
government, yet little has changed. With at least six journalists in jail (three
of them imprisoned during the sanctions period, from 2005-2009) Uzbekistan remains
the leading jailer of journalists in Europe and Central Asia. Their prison
terms vary from seven to 15 years behind bars.

No case depicts
the full extent of repression as that of the president's own nephew, journalist
Dzhamshid Karimov, who has been held in a psychiatric hospital for more than
four years in retaliation for his critical reporting. In September 2006,
security agents kidnapped him off the street in his native city of Jizzakh and
threw him in a clinic in a neighboring region. He has been held incommunicado
since. No lawyer dares represent him, local sources told CPJ, as no one will
dispute what is commonly viewed as a presidential decree.

In a
recent disturbing trend, Uzbek authorities have begun to use so-called
"experts" at the State Agency for Press and Information to indict the few remaining
independent voices. Since 2009, these "experts" have provided testimony that
helped convict three independent reporters and to imprison one civic activist
on bogus criminal charges of defamation and insult. Among them were prominent photojournalist
Umida Akhmedova and Abdumalik Boboyev, a local correspondent for the U.S.
government-sponsored broadcaster Voice of America. Based on the alleged
experts' opinions, prosecutors concluded that Akhmedova's photo series
depicting life in rural Uzbekistan and Boboyev's critical articles have "insulted
the Uzbek people and its tradition." The Uzbek Criminal Code contains no such
provisions.

Uzbek security services continue to intimidate independent
reporters by inviting them for "informal talks" at their offices, during which
the journalists have discovered that their every step was being monitored by
authorities. In 2010, Uzbek prosecutors phoned--instead of sending officially
required summonses--at least six reporters and asked them to come by their
office, the journalists told CPJ. Journalists were interrogated without their
lawyer present on their current and past reporting assignments, and presented
with detailed personal dossiers compiled by authorities about the journalists
and their families.

Censorship has been pervasive in the country since the 2005
crackdown. To this day, the government continues to block domestic access to
critical international websites, and jams foreign broadcasters it expelled from
the country that same year, sources told CPJ. The banned media include regional
news websites Ferghana, CentrAsia, Uznews, EurasiaNet, Voice
of Freedom, Lenta, and broadcasting services of the BBC Uzbek
Service, the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL),
and the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

In a rare development, two news anchors for state-controlled
Yoshlar TV publicly described censorship practices at work in August. At a
press conference held at the Tashkent-based human rights group Ezgulik, the anchors
said that government officials pre-screened their programs, censored reports
they found critical of the state, and instructed the journalists to present
information from the government-owned news agency. "State officials of any
level--from the presidential administration and security council to bank clerks,
tax police agents, and customs officers--can interfere in our work," the anchors
said.

We urge
you to make clear that relations with Europe are dependent on press freedom and
human rights, and that you will stand by the principles outlined in the
EU-Central Asia action plan.

We ask
you to publicly call on Karimov to release all our imprisoned colleagues. We also
ask that you encourage him to cease official intimidation of the independent
reporters, unblock independent news websites, and allow foreign broadcasters
back in the country. As a signatory to U.N. treaties and OSCE
declarations, the Uzbek government is obligated to respect and protect journalists'
right to report without fear of harassment, and the public's right to receive
uncensored information. By pressing Karimov on these issues, you will make
clear the EU's steadfast commitment to defending press freedom in Uzbekistan.